Notes

Ambient Light Sensor

Enable:

echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/hp-wmi/als

Disable:

echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/hp-wmi/als

Wireless button

Wireless button is controled by HW, so no driver is needed. For handling events generated by this button (e.g when press show info on screen), is needed proper maping to KEY_WLAN (238) in kernel (default is for unknow key):

setkeycodes e078 238

Ambient button

Fn+F11 (Ambient button) is badly mapped in kernel to KEY_TOUCHPAD_OFF (193). For remaping to KEY_PROG1 (148) which can be configured in Gnome/KDE for enabling/disabling sensor with commands above:

If (U)EFI mode is enabled it is still possible to boot in BIOS mode, but it is needed to quit loaded EFI bootloader. Grub2 has command exit, which quit itself and then firmware continue booting. (So you need quit grub2 4 times to be able to boot in BIOS mode)

HP_RECOVERY

Firmware can boot from this partition in BIOS mode when key F11 at boot is pressed. This partition must be BIOS/MBR type (or hybrid GPT), must be NTFS and must contains bootloader in partition header. Also must has label HP_RECOVERY. This partition contains Windows installation, but can be replaced by some recovery Linux distribution. It needs proper bootloader, so grub2 can be installed on this partition:

HP_TOOLS

This parition must be FAT32 with label HP_TOOLS and contains some default preinstalled HP (U)EFI applications (as System Informations, BIOS update utility, …) and preinstalled Linux distribution HP QuickWeb. All HP (U)EFI applications works if paritition is GPT type, only QuickWeb has problem. So this partition should be BIOS/MBR type or hybrid GPT. HP QuickWeb can be booted with Grub2, see http://phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?63666-Booting-HP-QuickWeb-(v3)-with-Grub2

Because this partition contains some HP (U)EFI application and is FAT32 it can be used as ESP (EFI System Partition) where must be located all (U)EFI bootloaders. ESP has GPT flag EF00.

Summary

This laptop works fine with Ubuntu 11.04 natty without any additional drivers. The only problem is brightness and for some people maybe lack of driver for Fingerprint reader.

I have a 8760w with ATI 6700M and kubuntu 12.04. I can press the mute button and a popup show that sound is muted, but it isn't. Does anybody know how to fix this?

morlix, 2012/05/10 07:39

the solution is to change the main channel to the internal audio channel and not use the default selected hdmi audio channel.

subhan, 2012/04/20 14:44

Optical drive is not working under Linux for me.

OpenSUSE 11.3

during installation of 11.3 - i booted from drive using 11.3 DVD - just before it display installation config (way before it started installation, i.e. first screen where it asks for language, even before that dialog), it prompted that please insert the dvd to carry out installation.- i connected external dvd drive and installed 11.3 but still it does not do anything when i put cd/dvds in it.

anyone ?

Luis, 2012/01/22 20:15

My HP EliteBook 8460p has not a Rademon graphic card, it looks to have an Intel but I dont know the exact model (perhaps Intel HD 3000).

Any of you has this model? I'm running Debian+xfce4+xserver-xorg-video-intel

Tested, but that patch does not work on my Elitebook 8460p. That patch is for vfs30x, but our Elitebook has vfs471.

Martin, 2011/12/26 17:52

Hello guys,

got this laptop and wanted to give it a try to run linux on it after several years of linux-abstence on notebook/desktop. Currently running latest Mint Debian with XFCE, custom 3.1.6 kernel (tried distro's 3.0.0 as well as 2.6.39)

- fan control ⇒ all cpu cores are adapting it's speed according to usage (mostly 800Mhz then) however I'm unable to get fan to more silent speed (I'm not sure if it's CPU or GPU speed that's causing problems however CPU's are between 42-53 degrees, and GPU around 52-55 degrees at idle state)

- backlight control ⇒ so far no working, at least the brightness is at usable level after ALS is enabled..

- broken 802.11n ⇒ I had to disable 'n' in order to get stable/working WLAN connection

All that results that notebook is mostly unusable when running on batteries, got 1:30 - 2:00 running time there whereas it can get 4.5/5+ on W7..

Anyway I'd be glad for any comments/suggestions regarding points above if you have some.. Or maybe also some other hints.. :)

Martin, 2011/12/28 19:19

Fine, tried latest fglrx with 3.1.6 and the backlight works now OK (even after sleep) - I should have read more carefully.. so I will stick to fglrx, so far it works well.. and I can get additional :45 - 1 hour of battery run..

You must have at least one BIOS/MBR partition without boot flag (boot flag is sometimes called active). You can use fdisk utility for setting MBR boot flag. If you are using GPT you can see that you have one large MBR parition with EF02 code.

If “Select EFI File” working and you see your ESP parition, then you do not have above problem with MBR boot flag.

How you can start efi_shell?

I think that “OS Boot Manager” try to boot from HDD, not USB. Maybe you can try to create ESP GPT partition on your HDD.

Also try copy grub.efi file to EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI, maybe it will works. (On my Elitebook this file is loaded too) Also check BIOS settings if UEFI booting and USB booting is enabled. (It show me warning that EFI booting is not supported :) )

I want to start without any entry.

Default boot order can be configured in BIOS. First order is UEFI (if enabled) and second legacy BIOS/MBR. So you can configure “OS Boot Manager” as first option.

I have grub2 on these locations and UEFI booting working fine:/boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/BOOT/bootmgfw.efi/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI/boot/efi/EFI/grub/grub.efi

/boot/efi is mounted as HP_TOOLS (FAT32, GPT, marked as EF00)HP_TOOLS is also hybrid GPT - MBR (without boot flag with Id c)grub is installed to /boot/efi/EFI/grub/

Gergely, 2011/11/08 09:37

Hi Nate and Pali,

I also have issues with the brightness control. I upgraded to the latest F20 BIOS + tried kernel with and without acpi_osi=Linux.

pcie_aspm=force option is set on the kernel command line.

I have a question to both of you: Do you have the high resolution panel (1600×900) or the low resolution panel (1366×768)?

I have the high resolution panel. If Nate would have a low res panel, then we might have a clue what is causing the different behavior.

Also for Nate: Are you using the open-source Radeon driver, or the closed-source FGRLX driver?

Best Regards,Gergely

Nate, 2011/11/08 12:55

Im afraid Im not gonna be much more help here because shortly after the last post the screen went wonky and the motherboard failed. I sent it in and have been waiting on its return now for 2 weeks. Mine was the Intel graphics btw.

Nate, 2011/12/16 23:29

I got the machine back from HP and installed Mint 12 on it. The brightness function keys didn't work right away (no change in brightness or OSD pop up), but after I tried:

echo 0 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness (this worked to set brightness to 0)

Suddenly the function keys for brightness worked! Mint is quite nice - I'm still checking to see whats working / not, so far so good.

Pali, 2011/11/08 22:30

I have panel with resolution 1600×900 and with radeon card. I'm using open source radeon driver (as I described in details) - but this should be irrelevant for display brightness (it should be handled - I belive ! - by ACPI or other part of HW).

I also tried different acpi_* kernel commands and also pcie_aspm=force. All without effect

But now I have some news:In QuickWeb brightness keys are working. Next, I hacked HP QuickWeb - I added xterm binary into QuickWeb and xterm is started after QuickWeb is booted. When I tried to change brightness via ACPI sysfs (/sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness) it worked!

So I really does not understand why in QuickWeb is ACPI handling working… Maybe HP patched linux kernel and they “brightness” problem… but we do not have source code of QuickWeb.

I asked HP for Linux kernel source code which is used in HP QuickWeb v3 for EliteBook 8460p but HP did not released it…

At least this ISPROBLEM in HW. Standard ACPI call for controlling brightness must work (in Linux can be adjusted by sysfs/procfs). And if not working there is bug in ACPI - so it is BIOS/HW bug!

Gergely, 2011/11/09 08:58

Hi Pali,

I tested with the fglrx drivers, and there the brightness settings works fine. Probably they use that in QuickWeb. Of course fglrx still messes up the text consoles + I had to disable splash screen so I can enter the disk encryption password at boot…

So I am pretty disappointed with how Linux performs on this machine (2 hrs battery life instead of 4, fans spinning like mad even after I applied all the power profile hacks I could find…

After 14 years with Linux I have to run Windows as my primary OS. I am still running Linux in VMs because we develop on Linux. And here comes the “surprise”: Windows 7 + Ubuntu 10.04 running in virtualbox still gives me 4 hours of battery life.

Best Regards,Gergely

Pali, 2011/11/14 21:27

Can you try/check if with open source radeon driver brightness not working and after switching to fglrx brightness starts working?

If this is true, then brightness is handled by graphics driver (fglrx) and not ACPI…

iWooki, 2011/07/22 15:11

How is the battery life for you guys.

I'm running an 8560p with Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit and Radeon driver. Brightness set to 100% due to lack of control but only getting 1.5 hours. I hear windows can get 5 hours battery which seems more than just screen brightness coming into play.

Pali, 2011/07/23 23:02

My 8460p - under 2 hours.

You can upgrade to last Ubuntu version - 11.04 and try to change graphics card power profile (should be same as on this page).

Sandra, 2011/10/23 02:06

Mine is about 2:45h, which I suppose is not that bad, but is still considerably less than I get in Windows (4-5h). Has anybody a solution for improving the battery life, using the AMD Radeon card with the fglrx drivers?

Pali, 2011/10/24 22:37

I upgraded to Ubuntu Oneiric 11.10. When I swithched to low radeon profile and configured power in program powertop I can get about more then 3 hours. I do not have any Windows so I cannot compare.

Here is script which can increase battery life (second and third line is not for fglrx):

I also updated kernel to 3.1, mesa to 7.12, xorg radeon to 6.14.99 - all from xorg-edgers and hibernation started working without any problem.

Jorn, 2012/07/04 19:30

The company I work for have the 8460p with Intel graphics as our standard laptop at the moment. We get it with Windows 7, and it has (at least it reports to have) around 6 hours of battery life with the standard install.

I have installed Ubuntu on mine, currently running 12.04. With Jupiter power management and all the power tweaks I have been able to find on the net, I get at most three hours of battery life. I find this a bit annoying, and hope someone have some tips for me.

At least my battery life is really three hours. I can't attest to the accuracy of the Windows battery life.

Pali, 2011/07/15 12:01

Some news about non working brightness keys:

When ACPI is disabled brigthness up, down and ambient keys are controled by HW. So when I disabled ACPI I'm able to control display brightness. But with disabled ACPI it is not possible to check battery state and all Fn keys does not send events to kernel.

So there must be bug in BIOS or ACPI on my model, because controling brightness does not working via /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness (but working when ACPI is disabled in kernel).

Works here for values between 0 and 20 (max). Had to sudo su first of course.

Pali, 2011/07/11 15:40

Which model do you have? Maybe (my or some) have buggy acpi…

Nate, 2011/07/11 20:49

It says “EliteBook 8460p” on the black trim of the screen.Under the battery there are a couple stickers, one is for WindowsThe other has “Product: LQ166AW#ABA” and a serial number which probably won't help you.

Pali, 2011/07/13 14:30

Ok. I have model LG743EA#BCM. So maybe some models has different acpi

Nate, 2011/07/10 12:46

I'm running Ubuntu 11.04 and my brightness Function+f9 and +f10 are working fine. Its just a default install too, I didn't do anything special.

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